


The Christmas After

by Gamma_siblings



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Fluff, Fluff & Angst, Hurt Bruce Banner, Hurt and comfort, sibling dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28278153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamma_siblings/pseuds/Gamma_siblings
Summary: Susan Drake attempts to make her nephew, Bruce Banner gain the holiday spirit once again after his mother’s passing. She knows that maybe spending time with his cousin, Jennifer, will do the trick.********************Bruce and Jennifer are shown with the age gap found in the comics.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Jennifer Walters, Susan Drake & Bruce Banner, Susan Drake & Elaine Walters
Kudos: 4





	The Christmas After

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first one-shot so let's see how this goes. Rebecca's death is mentioned in this, but it's nondescriptive.

For most children his age, Christmas was the most exciting time of the year. This was not the case however for Bruce Banner. The holiday brought out the absolute worst in his father, it caused stress that led the man into more drinking, which always ended in Bruce and his mother getting hurt. 

His last Christmas had wholly taken the cake for the worst celebration yet. The eight-year-old had watched in absolute horror as his mother was murdered right in front of him by his father. Rebecca Banner was the light of his life and he saw her shine be put out. The event had occurred right before the 25th and had put a terrible taste in the boy’s mouth.

The days after the event were hellish as he went to court and saw his father be taken away in handcuffs screaming profanities. Brian Banner was a monster and everyone now knew it, the county newspaper put their story on the first page. His Aunt Susan told him that it was disrespectful for the news to put their family’s dirty laundry out for everyone to see. Bruce was put into his maternal aunt’s custody as the result of the ordeal.

Adjusting to his Aunt Susan’s house was difficult as her husband didn’t seem to care for him at all. He wasn’t rude to Bruce, but he definitely wasn’t overly kind to him, he mostly just tolerated his existence. The trio skipped over the holiday as Bruce stayed in his room the entirety of the day, he daydreamed of what he and his mother would be doing together instead. The duo always made chocolate chip cookies and watched old seasonal movies together in ugly Christmas sweaters.

The absence of Rebecca stung the boy and he vowed to never celebrate the holiday again. His Aunt Susan, however, must’ve not gotten the memo as she awoke Bruce at the crack of dawn the following Christmas with a knock on his bedroom door.

“Bruce, love it’s time to get up, we have a busy day ahead of us,” Susan chirped.

“Do I have to?” the boy questioned with his blanket covering his head.

“I have a feeling you won’t want to miss out on anything today. We’re going to see your Aunt Elaine and Uncle Morris.” she paused for a second before almost cooing, “Jennifer will be there too, I know how much you like to spend time with her,”.

That much was true, Bruce loved spending time with Jennifer. She was two years younger than he was, but they always had a lot of fun hanging out together. When he still lived with his parents he was allowed to stay over at her place sporadically during the summer. He hadn’t seen her since his mother’s passing and the idea of seeing her did lighten his mood.

“I’m getting ready,” the child called as he began to get dressed for the day, he didn’t have anything too festive so he instead put on a red sweater.

***********************************************  
The drive to the Walters’s residence didn’t last for too long, it was a little over an hour away. Susan drove and Bruce sat in the back in a booster seat. He was small for his age in both height and weight, perhaps due to his father restricting him from eating in his early years. Susan knew that her nephew was constantly picked on by the other children at his school for his small size and timid manner and that it was heightened after the news broke about his parents. This resulted in Bruce having no friends besides his cousin, which made them seeing each other today so important.

When they arrived at the Walters’s house a tiny figure darted out of the home towards the vehicle. Jennifer was pulling on the car handle by Bruce before the car had even come to a complete stop. Elaine yelled at her daughter for being so reckless as Bruce let himself out of the car and hugged his cousin. The pair had the same dark hair and eyes, Jen’s hair had looser curls than Bruce’s tight spirals; they could’ve easily been mistaken as siblings.

Susan was greeted by her sister with a half-grimace.

“I sure hope Jennifer didn’t scare you too badly, she was just so excited to see her cousin,” Elaine began to explain.

“It’s alright Elaine, nobody got hurt,” Susan replied.

The pair continued their conversation as they made their way inside with the children following after them. Jennifer took her cousin upstairs to show him her collection of bugs. Jen loved every animal she met and had a special place in her heart for those who weren’t considered conventionally cute. 

“This is my favorite part of my collection,” the girl held out a silkworm, “I found him munching on some of the leaves on a bush in our front yard,” she explained.

Bruce was amazed by the tiny creature and asked if he could hold it. The worm was mostly still in his hand as he held it up towards his face. Elaine’s voice startled the boy as she called for the children to come back downstairs to eat.

“I bet I can make it there before you can,” Jen taunted.

Before Bruce could even respond she took off and he followed suit. Jen stretched her legs as far as they would allow as she descended. Bruce was much more cautious and held onto the handrail and watched as she misstepped. She bobbled slightly as Bruce used his other hand to grip onto her sweater vest. The two looked at each other for a few moments before they joined hands and decided to slowly continue the decline.

**********************************************************  
The lunch that laid out before the occupants of the Walters’s home was quite impressive. It had every single one of Bruce’s favorite dishes which he found to be quite odd as normally there were only a few dishes in the entire display that he could force himself to eat. He decided to ignore his discovery in order to keep the attention off of himself. Most of the conversation at the table was directed towards his Uncle Morris and his tales of his time as a sheriff. He spoke of a local drug ring and how he and his crew busted them, it was an entertaining story Bruce thought.

“Daddy, did you put those people in the same jail as Uncle Brian?” came Jennifer’s voice questioningly. 

Bruce felt eyes on his face as he stared straight down at his plate. Morris hushed Jen’s question and told her to never bring it up again, but the damage had already been done. The boy knew she didn’t mean any harm, but the inquiry still stung. He felt something come around the back of his chair and felt warm hands on his back.

“We can go outside if you’d like. Just nod your head yes if you’d like to go and we can, these no need to speak if you don’t want to,” came Susan’s voice comfortingly.

Bruce gave a slight nod of his head and got up to head outside with his aunt. The Walters’s had a beautiful garden in their front yard where the worm came from. There were brightly colored flowers lined all around the property. It reminded Bruce of his mother and how she used to love to plant purple bellflowers. It made him smile slightly. The pair sat on the grass and looked at the beauty that surrounded them.

“We can head on home if you’d like. Nobody would blame you, although I don’t believe Jennifer meant to cause you any pain,” Susan said.

The boy shook his head,” There’s no need for us to leave, I just needed to get away for a bit,”.

After a few minutes of silence, it was interrupted by Jennifer bursting out of the front door. She ran straight towards her cousin with her curls bouncing with each step. 

“I’m sorry Brucie, I didn’t mean to make you sad. I love you, you can say something mean to me to get even if you want,” she said without taking a single breath.

“It’s okay Jen, I’m not going to be mean to you because I love you too silly,” Bruce responded.

The pair hugged it out and then headed back inside to finish their lunch and to get ready to unwrap presents.  
******************************************  
The Christmas tree was in one of the corners of the Walters’s home. It had more presents under its branches than Bruce had seen in his entire life. It was a real tree and smelled wonderful, he had never owned a real tree as his father hated the sap they produced and couldn’t stand seeing pine needles on the floor. 

Jen raced to the tree as her mother announced that it was time to unwrap gifts. She grabbed a box decorated with candy-canes and was about to tear the wrapping before her mother interrupted her.

“Jenny, I think we should let Bruce open one of his presents first, hmm? He is our guest after all,” came Elaine's voice.

Jennifer dropped her present and swiped up a box with Bruce’s name on it and gestured for him to open it up. Bruce stared at the package before carefully peeling the tape back to open the present without tearing the wrapping paper. Once again he found it strange that everyone around him had become so accommodating, but he opened up the box all the same. The wrapping revealed a small chemistry set with miniature test tubes. 

“Thank you so much,” the boy looked at his Aunt Elaine and gave her a smile.

Bruce was not looking forward to giving the set back to his aunt after the celebration. Jennifer to the left of him opened up the package from earlier to reveal a pair of ballet slippers. She had always wanted to be a ballerina and she beamed in delight. 

It was cruel Bruce thought for his aunt to bestow them with such gifts, it would make them being taken away hurt even worse. He kept his opinion to himself as he was handed yet another box. The boy looked around to see if he was accidentally given someone else's gift, but was pleasantly surprised to see his name on the gift’s tag. He had never been given more than one present before and the generosity hurt. Normally he was given a single gift by his mother in secret when they had a few minutes together, then he would have to hide his gift. If his father found his gift (which he always did without fail) then he would get rid of it. He didn’t want his Aunt Elaine to get rid of his and Jen’s gifts.

He paused and looked towards his aunt’s face before unraveling his next gift, a book on the human body with color-coded diagrams. She seemed to be pleased that he liked his gift which he found even more strange. Bruce’s final gift was handed to him by his Aunt Susan when they were the only two left in the room as everyone left to get desserts in the kitchen.

“I know this time of the year is hard on you love, so I got you something that will hopefully remind you of better times,” she spoke softly.

Bruce was handed a gift bag from Susan that had three separate items. The first was the ugliest sweater he had ever seen, it had reindeer playing hockey as a pattern in obnoxious colors all around the shirt. The next item was a bag of cookie mix in the flavor of chocolate-chip. The final gift was a copy of his mother’s favorite old Christmas movie that they watched every year.He realized then that nobody was going to ask for their stuff back, the gifts were truly his and his family really did love him.

The boy felt warm tears hit his cheeks before he realized he was even crying. He tried to keep his emotions to himself most of the time,but he couldn’t help himself and honestly it felt good to let go. He was held in his guardian’s arms for a while while he sobbed and thanked her for everything. He heard small footsteps approach from behind him and then felt his cousin’s arms wrap around him. Susan let go of him and he turned around to fully hold his cousin who had begun to sob as well. She pulled back after a moment and looked into his eyes.

“I don’t know why we’re crying, but I don’t like to see you sad Brucie,” she sniffed.

The boy stopped mid sob to let out a tiny chuckle. Jen was the absolute best, she was funny, fierce, and very loving. 

“You know you are my best friend, right?” Bruce felt the need to ask.

“Duh, you’re a nerd of course I’m your best friend. I’m your only friend in fact,” Jen lifted her chin up at the end of her statement.

The pair laughed and then Bruce went into the bathroom to change into his sweater. It fit him slightly loose but he preferred for his clothes to be slightly baggy versus form fitting. Jen told him that it made her want to wash her eyeballs after seeing it in all of its glory. It was a powerful sweater and made his aunts and uncle laugh at the sight of it.

****************************************  
Making the cookies from the bag was much easier than making them from scratch the boy thought to himself as Morris put them in the oven. Morris and he had never gotten along, he believed that Bruce would one day turn out like his father. This was Bruce’s greatest fear, becoming a monster like Brian was. 

“I put on a timer so when it beeps come, get me and I’ll take the cookies out of the oven,” Morris huffed before he left Jen and Bruce in the kitchen.

After the oven beeped and the cookies sat in room temperature for a while the children began to eat them. They were a little more cooked than Bruce liked as he preferred a more gooey cookie, but they were delicious none of the less. Jen ate way too many cookies too fast and had to be given stomach medicine for her upset stomach. The pair saved two cookies for Santa Claus and put them on a special plate for later.

Everyone gathered in the main room with the television to watch a movie before the guests were ready to leave. It was already dark and they didn’t want to overstay their welcome. They inserted Bruce’s movie from his aunt and he was once again struck by how thoughtful everyone was being to him. 

Bruce and Jennifer sat on the floor on a pallet made by the adults made of pillows and blankets. Jen was already in her pajamas that had elves on them and was yawning. Bruce yawned back, he was tired from the day’s events. 

“You can stay the night if you want to, Bruce,” Elaine said.

Bruce looked over at Susan about to ask her a billion questions. Was it okay with her? He didn’t have anything to sleep in so what would he wear? What about his toothbrush?

“I see that look in your eyes, I already knew you’d want to stay so I packed you a bag just in case. Elaine and I spoke about you staying over weeks ago. It’s alright if you stay it won’t hurt my feelings any and I’ll swing by tomorrow after lunch to pick you up,” Susan spoke before Bruce could even voice his questions.

“Thank you, Aunt Susan,” the boy grabbed the bag out of her vehicle and changed into his pjs. He hugged Susan goodbye as she left for the night and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Normally he didn’t like any type of touch but today he made an exception. 

Bruce got back down on the pallet after brushing his teeth and saw that Jen was already asleep. He kissed her on the forehead and she stirred slightly before resuming her peaceful slumber. The rest of his family went to bed as the movie ended and he closed his eyes to be met with a sound rest. It was truly the best Christmas he had ever experienced and he would remember the day for the rest of his life.


End file.
